Our True Intent is All for Your Delight

How to… Ride your Bicycle with Confidence

What a beautiful day for a last day of term, or if you are really lucky, your first day off! We’ve had a really busy week here on our Butlin’s resort, with lots of fabulous entertainment and activities, but we aren’t worn out yet! In fact, we reckon one of the best activities for a sunny day is to go out on a bike ride! There’s nothing better than the sun on your face and the wind through your helmet as you pedal through your favourite cycling location, a big clue that the summer season is on its way.

If you joined us on our tots break, you may have been involved in our Balanceability activity, a fantastic introduction, providing you with the important balancing skills you’ll need as you move up to a grown-up bicycle one day.

If you are already on a grown up bicycle – well done you! Do you have a favourite place to cycle? Maybe it’s the park, or along the seaside? You can always let us know by tweeting us @butlins or maybe even sending a photograph of you and your bike to our Facebook page.

Because we think this is such a wonderful activity, we’ve come up with a little list of top tips to make sure that you are able to go out and have lots of fun, all whilst keeping safe!

Protect your head, elbows and knees!

Before we do anything, it is very important to make sure you are protected. We know that you’re a whizz on your bike, but accidents do still happen, so strap on your helmet, elbow and knee pads!

Put on your helmet!

Keeping balanced

If you weren’t involved on our balanceability activity, don’t worry! You can use your own bike at home to practice your balancing, it really is easy-peasy. You can start off by using just your feet to move you along in the right direction, keeping hold of your handle bars and directing your bike. A great way to do this, is to put out some cones (just like we did!) see how many times you can weave in and out!

Slowly around the cone obstacles!

Pedalling

This is the most important (and fun) part of your cycling experience. The best way to master the peddling technique is to start with training wheels or stabilisers, this will give you the chance to practice your steering and pedalling without losing balance – once you’re ready, these can come off!

Braking

As much fun as it is once we get going, we will need to remember to stop! To do this we use our brakes, that can be found on our handlebars. By pressing down on the break, you will stop your wheels from moving, when you’ve slowed down enough you can gently drop your foot onto the ground to come to a steady halt. Take a moment, and off you go again!

Remember, you should always have an adult with you when riding your bicycle, especially if you are still learning! It will take a while to master, but don’t give up! Learning to ride a bike is a fantastic achievement, and will make you feel very proud.